Innovation

Too Good to Go has an innovative way of reducing food waste at local restaurants, bakeries, and grocery stores by creating a method for them to upload all excess food left at the end of the day. The app then makes it accessible for the consumer to purchase for a third of the retail price. This helps reduce hunger for a consumer who may not have been able to get access to meals at this low price.

Too Good to Go has reached an incredible footprint of 215,966 active businesses on the platform. There are over 92 million users who can search for these restaurants, bakeries, and more to get surprise bags that contain meals at a much more affordable price. Not only is this innovation reducing hunger but also creates awareness for sustainable consumption and production for both users and businesses. Globally recognized brands are getting behind this initiative and making their product available through the app as well as working on more sustainable practices around their food production and environmental impact.

Inspiration

Sarah started with Too Good to Go at its inception in 2015 and is currently the Senior PR manager. In her role, she helps bring the business model and the business for good initiative across the global marketplace in over 17 countries where the company operates. Sarah explained in the interview, "We use our social [media] accounts to help promote tips and facts about food waste."

"Every time I buy in the Too Good To Go app, I feel good about helping the environment and helping reduce waste," Sarah explained. Sarah shared that part of the inspiration for her is the tremendous impact that Too Good to Go has on minimizing the overproduction of food and the environmental impact of that; "Everything we do is sustainable. It's embedded in our mission. We can make money while doing good and helping businesses."

In addition to sustainability, there's money to be made for the businesses and money to be saved for the consumer. Sarah mentioned that she loves seeing the responses from their customers sharing what they've purchased through the app and the contents of the surprise bags.

Overall impact

Too Good to Go envisions eliminating food waste in the long term. They plan to expand worldwide and contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions while making food accessible at an affordable price.

So far, there have been over 200 million meals saved thanks to Too Good to Go. The company's goal is to reach 1 billion meals saved in the next 5 years. The business impact is clear by the favorable response and enrollment of the 215,966 businesses actively operating on the platform.

Business benefit

The B-Corp-certified business has created a vehicle for other businesses to increase revenues by almost $1 billion. The mobile platform has opened the market for a population to purchase meal surprise bags at a reduced price that they would otherwise not have been able to procure. The platform helps businesses save up to the equivalent of 1 hour of employee effort per day by minimizing the need to dispose of surplus food. Foods that would have normally been wasted and captured no revenue can now recover their cost of goods sold and improve the top and bottom line for the business.

Because Too Good to Go is a service that promotes sustainable production and access to a broad consumer base, the partnered brands get a boost of support from consumers. For example, I am a loyal customer of CAVA, a Mediterranean fast-casual dining restaurant. Knowing that they're partnered with Too Good to Go makes me more supportive of the brand.

Social and environmental benefit

Food waste accounts for 10% of all human-cause greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Too Good to Go provides an alternative for businesses to minimize the overproduction of food and reduce greenhouse emissions. We waste 2.5 billion tonnes of food annually while there are millions of people in the world that go hungry every day. Too Good to Go has a closed-loop initiative that helps bring that excess of food closer to the population that most need it at an accessible price.

Wasting food also costs around $1.2 trillion each year. The more surprise bags and meals Too Good to Go can get into consumers' hands, the more our society benefits from eliminating waste, benefitting the environment, and raising awareness about the dire need to prevent food waste and excess production.

Interview

Sarah Soteroff, Senior PR Manager